This invention relates to inspection apparatus and method which is especially useful for inspecting a web such as cloth manufactured upon a textile machine.
Cloth inspection devices as used, for example, on looms often employ rotatable rolls over which the cloth passes prior to inspection adjacent the bottom of a light box with another rotatable roll at the top of the light box as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,295 and in the prior art illustrated herein. Such inspection apparatus has considerable height due to the necessity for positioning the rolls above and below the inspection area of the light box and the like. Moreover, such structures provide a limited viewing area and are relatively expensive, requiring considerable maintenance for their operation.
Efforts to solve the problems have included the provision of a light box having a low profile such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,725. Such devices have the disadvantage of providing only a limited inspection area since such is effectively divided or split extending on both sides of the takeup.
Accordingly, it is an important object of this invention to provide an improved web inspection apparatus and method which may be inexpensively manufactured and operated while providing a low profile conserving space in the loom area of the mill.
While the invention is illustrated as being applied to a loom, such may be used in other textile fabric manufacturing and winding machines as well as in plastic or other web forming or winding applications.